Firing up Courage: Friends, family and firefighters encourage 9-year-old Brody in his fight against brain cancer

Ozark County resident Brody Shelby, 9, had a special visitor Friday at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, where he was recovering from brain surgery. The visitor came from the Springfield Fire Department. But he didn’t come through the door to Brody’s hospital room in these covid-restrictive times. Instead, SFD personnel backed a huge truck up to the south side of the hospital and extended the fire ladder to Brody’s fourth-floor room in the pediatric intensive care unit so Firefighter Jason Elliot could wave to him through the window and show him a big Christmas card that said, “Happy holidays, Brody.” 

“We kept it a secret,” Brody’s mom, Bobbie Jo Shelby, said Saturday. “The poor kid has been in and out of hospitals so much; everything about hospitals scares him. But I coaxed him out of bed and said we had a surprise coming. When he seen the firetruck backing up, he said, ‘Ohhhh! That’s for me!’

“He got a little emotional, he was so excited,” Bobbie Jo said.

A video posted on Tik Tok and linked to the “Springfield, MO Fire Department” Facebook page has been viewed thousands of times, and messages of encouragement have poured in.

Brody “absolutely loves firetrucks,” Bobbie Jo said. It probably helps that his stepdad, James Walley Jr., is a captain in the Lick Creek Volunteer Fire Department. Now that the family lives on the west side of the county, near Spring Creek, James also serves with the Timber Knob and Theodosia Area VFDs as his time allows.

As Brody faced surgery last week, James asked for prayers on his Facebook page – and in firefighter groups he belongs to. The news and request for prayers also spread through the network of friends he’s developed during 16 years in firefighting. 

Fire departments from near and far have responded to the news of Brody’s recent health challenges with encouraging gifts, including a firefighter’s helmet signed by dozens of Ozark County firefighters, a shirt signed by Gamaliel (Arkansas) VFD members, and shoulder patches, gifts and greetings from many other fire departments around the country, including the North Charleston, South Carolina, Fire Department where James used to work – and from other departments as far away as Waikerie, South Australia. Brody even got an encouraging video message from NASCAR driver Matt Tiff. 

Monday, the family was notified that Brody would be named an SFD honorary firefighter and presented with a certificate when he and his family returned to Springfield Tuesday for a follow-up appointment.

“It has really been an honor to be able to participate in this,” SFD Fire and Life Safety coordinator Heather Parker told the Times Monday. “We do wish them the best.“

One challenge after another

The encouragement is greatly appreciated – and needed. Brody has bravely faced one challenge after another in his nine short years. He was born at what is now Cox Hospital - Branson with spina bifida, a type of birth defect affecting the spine, spinal cord or brain. When he was four months, he underwent successful surgery at Cox South in Springfield to “untether his spinal cord,” Bobbie Jo said, “and after that, you wouldn’t know anything had happened.”

The family, including Brody’s older brother and sister, Bryce, now 14, and Baylie, now 12, lived in Taney County at the time. Brody was a typical toddler, Bobbie Jo said, until he was 3 1/2 in 2015, “and he started getting sick. He had headaches, and he was losing his balance. We thought it was probably something connected to the spina bifida.”

They went back to the same neurosurgeon who had done the spina bifida surgery, and Brody had an MRI that showed “a brain tumor that had nothing to do with the spinal cord,” she said. Brody had two brain surgeries to remove an ependymoma, a type of cancer. 

Then Brody and Bobbie Jo moved to Memphis for six months so he could have radiation treatments at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Brody’s older siblings stayed with family while their mom and brother were away. Afterward, Bobbie Jo said, “He had to have physical therapy. His hand-eye coordination was all off, and his little eyes were crossed.”

But Brody overcame all those challenges and has been in remission since then, with follow-up scans every six months that have been clean and showed no cancer, Bobbie Jo said. 

Brody has another sibling now, 18-month-old Berklee. Because of her history with Brody, Bobbie Jo was offered genetic testing during her pregnancy. “Honestly, I didn’t care. She could have been born with six arms, and that would have been OK. It didn’t matter to me,” she said. “If something was wrong, I was praying for a spinal cord issue that could be fixed and she would be up and running around again in no time, like Brody did.”

But Berklee was born healthy and sound, with no birth defects. 

A recurrence of the brain tumor

The family was enjoying a busy, happy life. Bobbie Jo and the kids moved to Ozark County in March, and she enrolled the kids in Gainesville schools. 

But as the covid pandemic worsened and the new school year started, she decided to keep Brody home and opt for virtual learning. He still seemed healthy, and his scans in August had come back clean. 

James has a job making deliveries for the Bouquet Palace in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and a couple of weeks ago, Bobbie Jo got a job in Mountain Home too, working as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office.

But then, in the last few weeks, “I noticed that Brody’s balance was off,” she said. And then his eye-hand coordination wasn’t quite right either.”

They took him to Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, where a CT scan was done. After that, Bobbie Jo said, “They sent us to Mercy in Springfield.”

An MRI there showed “the recurrence of the brain tumor,” she said.

Brody underwent brain surgery Tuesday, Dec. 15. The surgeon told Bobbie Jo and James he “removed 90 percent of what was visible and operable,” James told the Times that  night.

“This one was wrapped around his brain stem,” Bobbie Jo said later. “And there were some smaller inoperable tumors.” She added, “There’s a chance that the radiation from the first tumor caused the secondary cancer. That happens sometimes.”

The biopsy results should be back soon, she said. “Then we’ll know what monster we’re fighting.”

The biopsy results will probably determine where the family spends Christmas. There’s a good chance they’ll be heading back to St. Jude in Memphis. That thought scares Brody. “He knows what that means. He’s been a St. Jude patient. He knows some kids don’t make it,” Bobbie Jo said. “The first few days we were in the hospital last week, he said, ‘Mommy is this gonna kill me this time?’” 

‘We need to be together’

She and James don’t know where they’ll be spending Christmas, but wherever it is, they’ll be together, Bobbie Jo said. “Three and a half years ago, we left the older kids with family for six months while we were in Memphis. Now they’re scared they’re going to get left behind again. So we’ve told them they’re going to be in the fight with us. If Brody needs to go to Memphis, we’re all going.”

While all medical costs are covered at St. Jude, along with housing for one parent, they will have to pay for their own housing if the whole family goes. “But we need to be together,” Bobbie Jo said. “We’re fighting a bigger monster this time than we were fighting before. Brody needs his brother and sisters with him. He needs his family around him.”

That was obvious Saturday when Brody was released from the hospital and came home to his family. He enjoyed visits from friends at Ozark County Ambulance, who came by, lights flashing and siren blaring, with four members of the medical team wearing Santa hats and a giant stuffed bear on the gurney inside the vehicle. Ozark County Deputy Justin Brown and his canine partner Rye also came by to say hello. 

Bobbie Jo’s “best friend in the whole world,” Erin Wyman, did all the Christmas shopping for the whole family and brought the gifts by the home Saturday. She bought most of the presents herself “with some donations that have come in,” Bobbie Jo said.

Wyman, a Forsyth Elementary School teacher, also set up a gofundme.com account. (Search for “Team Brody.”)

James and Bobbie Jo don’t know what’s ahead, but Brody’s doctors wanted him to have as much time at home as possible before whatever comes next. The 9-year-old was “happy but nervous” about coming home Saturday and wanted to walk in from the car instead of using the wheelchair. 

Sunday morning, Brody wanted to go to church. So the family packed up and headed to Grace Baptist on Highway 160 near the Gainesville Sale Barn. “We even stayed for the fellowship lunch,” Bobbie Jo said in a Facebook post. 

 The church, led by Pastor Nathan Phenix, plays a big role in the family’s spiritual life and also in supporting them through these anxious days. Those who want to help but are uncomfortable using the gofundme.com site may make checks payable to Bobbie Jo Shelby and mail them in care of the church at 24 Calvary Drive, Gainesville, MO 65655.

Meanwhile, Brody and his family are grateful for the prayers and messages of support that have come as they make their way on “a road we never expected to be going down again,” Bobbie Jo said. “But we will fight it like we did before. We will fight this monster however we need to.”